While the forest department focuses on measures like pursuing the Central Government for permission to declare selected wildlife vermin and kill it, observers point out that the department is failing to even plan effective measures to tackle the human-wildlife conflict raging across the State.
Wild animals especially the bear, leopards and monkeys have been become cause for terror especially in the mountainous parts of the Garhwal region. In some villages, the children have not gone to school for some days for fear of a chance encounter with a wild animal. Nowadays, the movements of a bear are the cause of terror among residents of Kaljikhal block in Pauri district. The residents of the villages in Joshimath, Ghat, Tharali, Deval, Pokhri block of Chamoli district are living in fear of both bears and leopards whereas in villages of Karnprayag Tehsil, wild boars damaging crops is the main cause of concern.
The terror of the bear has risen high in the Kalijikhal block area of Pauri district where the children of Dhar and Govindpur villages had not gone to attend their school — the Government inter college in Mundaneshwar — for the last three-four days for fear of being attacked by bear. On some occasions, the students were forced to return to their villages midway when they found the bear on the path to Mundaneshwar. Some claimed that the bear was also following people closer to the village. More than two dozen such children studying in the Government inter college are not attending school for fear of the bear. Their guardians and the Gram Pradhan have already requested the the district administration to take necessary measures for resolving the threat being faced by the villagers from the bear. However, nothing has been done by the authorities so far to resolve the human-wildlife conflict situation.
The Garhwal forest division sub divisional officer Subodh Kala told The Pioneer that on Saturday, a team of department staff had been deployed in the area to search for the bear but they were unable to spot it. According to the statistics provided by the forest department, 23 attacks on humans by wild animals had taken place in the forest division during a period of two years. In these two years, bear attacks led to the death of two persons and injuries to more people in different parts of the Garhwal forest division. last year, Paithani resident Anand Singh had lost his life in a bear attack while earlier in the present year, a young girl was killed by a bear in lawana village in Pokhra block.
It is pertinent to mention here that the human-wildlife conflict is said to be among the reasons for migration from areas of mountainous regions where wild animals damage crops and pose danger to villagers.
However, observers point out that instead of taking measures to treat the root cause of the human-wildlife conflict, the authorities are focusing more on unproven methods like sterilisation of monkeys to resolve the monkey menace faced in different parts of the State.